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SPEECH 



OP 



HON. WILL: CUMBACK, OF INDIANA, 



ON THE 



AFFAIRS IN KANSAS. 



DKUVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 7, 1856. 



WASHINGTON: 
5t»RINTEb AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1S56. 



recently acquired from Mexico, A PROVISJON FOKEVER 
EXCLUDING FROM SUCH TERRITORY SLAVERY 
AND INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE, otherwise than in 
the punishment for crimes whereof the party has been duly 
convicted." 

Mr. Speaker, I take the principle contained in 
that resolution — the constitutional power to inhibit 
the further spread of the blighting curse of slavery 
— for my instructions, and commend to it my col- 
leagues — each and all of them from my own 
State. It is sound and healthy doctrine. But to 
put this matter entirely at rest, I will offer a word 
or two of corroboration. 

But a short time since, our Legislature had 
a Senator to elect to reprasent us in the other end 
of the Capitol, and of course there were several 
patriotic gentlemen who were willing to make the 
sacrifice on that occasion. But before the De- 
mocracy would commit such an important trust 
to any member of their party, they appointed a 
committee to investigate their soundness on the 
question of slavery extension. Mr. Whitcomb's 
answer to the interrogatories of the committee 
was most satisfactory, and they chose him. His 
answer is as follows: 

Indianapolis, December 9, 1848. 

Gentlemen : Your letter of this date, in relation to the 
subject of the extension of slavery into our newly-acquired 
Territories of New Mexico and CaUfornia, has been re- 
ceived. I have time to give but a brief reply — one, however, 
which I trust will be sufficiently intelligible for your pur- 
pose. 

As stated in my recent message to the Legislature, these 
Territories have come to us free, by their own laws, from 
tlie institution of slavery. It is incontrovertible that slavery 
there or elsewhere cannot exist without the sanction of positive 
law. I AM OPPOSED TO THE PASSAGE OF ANY 
SUCH LAW. I BELIEVE THAT CONGRESS CAN 
CONSTITUTIONALLY PASS SUCH ORGANIC LAWS 
FOR THE GOVERNMENT OF THE TERRITORY AS 
WILL, IN THEIR OPERATION, PREVENT THE-a^ER- 
RITORIAL LEGISLATURE FROM PASSING ANY 
SUCH LAW. IT FOLLOWS THAT CONGRESS CAN, 
IN MY JUDGMENT, PREVENT THE INTRODUC- 
TION OF SLAVERY INTO THOSE TERRITORIES. 

In relation to your second question, I will add that, still 
regarding slavery as I did nearly twenty years ago, in a 
report I made in the Legislature of this State, as a draw- 
back upon the prosperity of any country, I would, if a 
member, use my influence, and vote for the passage by 
Congress of a law of the kind referred to: that is to sav, 
A LAW WHICH WILL OPERATE EFFECTUALLY 
TO PREVENT THE INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY 
INTO THESE TERRITORIES. 

I am, very respectfully, j-our obedient servant, 

JAMES WHITCOMB. 
Messrs. J. P. Milliken, and others. 

We propose, in Indiana, to see to it that men 

are still sound as the Senator then chosen by the 

Democracy, before wc make Senators of them; 

and if they, like he, prove to be right on this 

question, we propose, like the Democracy did 

then, to give them commissions; and if their 

knees become feeble, and their spines weak, we 

will then point them to the instructions upon the 



Journal of our Legislature, to which I have re- 
ferred, to give them "aid and comfort." 

But, sir, I presume this will be sufficient, so 
far as the Democracy of my own State is con- 
cerned. I might read a few chapters from Ohio, 
from New Hampshire, from Michigan, from 
Pennsylvania, and, indeed, from all the northern 
States; but I am not desirous of going into that 
now, and would not have said one word on the 
subject, but for the question propounded by the 
honorable gentleman, [Mr. Oliver,] to whom I 
rose to reply. He, sir, is a new convert to De- 
mocracy — or rather, to the galvanized article now 
attempting to pass itself off as such; and let me 
say to him this word of advice now, that he will 
find that they " play upon a harp of a thousand 
strings;" but the "just men made perfect" will 
be remarkable for their scarcity. 

Mr. Speaker, it has been the practice of every 
Democratic speaker who i-efers to the scenes of 
bloodshed, violence, and fraud in the Territory of 
Kansas, to lay them all upon the head of the emi- 
grant aid society, as a kind of scape-goat to carry 
off all the sins of the invaders of that Territory 
and of this imbecile Administration, in not pro- 
tecting the people of that Territory in their rights. 
What was this society organized for ? The great 
sin, in the opinion of the gentleman from Mis- 
souri, was that it intended to use its efforts to 
make Kansas a free State. Ah ! sir, I recollect 
well in my own State — I can almost hear now 
the echo from hill-top to vale — the eloquent ap- 
peals made to the people of my State and district 
by the orators of the Democratic party, that the 
repeal of the Missouri compromise would not 
only tend to make Kansas and .Yehraska free 
States, but that slavery could not exist now south 
of the line of 36° 30', and that the result would be, 
that not only these Territories would be made into 
free Slates, but that a cordon of free States would 
be established in the future to the Pacific ocean. 
That was the doctrine there; and I have no doubt 
that there arc northern Democrats here now, who 
owe their seats to that position assumed at home; 
yet, it is- a great sin, say that same party now, foF 
men to go to Kansas to make it a free State. I 
never had any intention to go to Kansas until I 
saw the condition of things there, and the efforts 
to force slavery upon its people by means of 
fraud and violence, and no assistance rendered by 
this Administration, calling itself Democratic. I 
then felt like going there to help make it a free 
State. 

Mr. MILLER, of Indiana. Will the gentle- 
man allow me a word .' 

Mr. CUMBACK. I cannot now. I will, 



when I get through, allow my colleague to ask 
me any question that may please him. He will 
please excuse me now. 

I ask the gentleman from Missouri how often, 
and how many at a time of the people from tlie 
northern States, are to go to Kansas to become 
citizens? Has it come to tliis, that Missouri 
must be consulted on this point? Has it come to 
this, that when a few men go together to settle in 
Kansas, to find a home for tliemselvcs and their 
children, that because they are northern men, and 
love freedom better than slavery, and will so vote, 
that that is to be considered as warring against 
the riglita of Missouri, and justify a descent upon 
the rights of these men ? If that doctrine is to be 
estiiblishcd as the correct one, if I were to go to 
Kansas holding the opinions which I do in regard 
to the extension of slavery — and I certainly would 
not leave them behind me — I would be warring 
against Missouri ! Sir, if this is the doctrine, and 
1 were in tliat Territory a citizen, and my Hght 
to vote was questioned by outsiders, there would 
be war between me and the invader of my rights 
at once. I pray gentlemen to tell us what rights 
the Missourians have in Kansas until they be- 
come actual settlers in the Territory? We were 
told that the PEOPLE were to be left perfectly free 
to form their own institutions in their own way, 
and that it was an outrage upon their rights to 
prohibit slavery there by law; yet it seems that 
outsiders, in the face of this Administration, have 
been left perfectly free to override all the rights 
of the citizens there, and no protection is afforded 
them. But I wholly deny that men of the North 
have gone to Kansas for the purpose of simply 
controlling the institutions of that Territory, in- 
tending, as soon as it w^as made a free State, to 
return. Some of them may have returned; but 
in going there, they all had an intention of be- 
coming citizens of the Territory and actual resi- 
dents. They wished, it is true, to make the Ter- 
ritory a free State. By the legislation of our 
fathera, that Territory was guarantied to freedom 
forever, and we intend that it shall be " forever" 
free. 

Mr. PHELPS. I appeal to the gentleman, as 
he has asked mc a question, to let me make a 
reply. ' 

Mr. CUMRACK. I cannot yield now. 

Mr. PHELPS. Do not ask me questions, then, 
if you do not ijitend to give me an opportunity to 
reply. 

Mr. CUMBACK. You may have the whole 
session to reply when I am done. The doctrine 
of tlie Democratic, party, as I said a while ago, 
was once resistance to slavery agitation. James 



K. Polk, in speaking of this very same Missouri 
compromise, does not stigmatize it, as does my 
friend fVom Missouri, [Mr. Oliver,] and other 
Democrats, as an " odious measure." He said 
that it was a great act of conciliation; that its 
authors wore hailed as public benefactors. That 
was the Democracy speaking through James K. 
Polk, while President of the United States, and 
supported by this party. Us authors were hailed 
as great " benefactors;" and when we succeed in 
restoring that compromise, and guarantying free 
institutions in Kansas and Nebraska to our chil- 
dren and our children's children forever, then we 
shall be hailed as " public benefactors." 

Mr. RICHARDSON. Where in James K. 
Polk's writings does the gentleman find the ex- 
pression which ho uses? 

Mr. CUMBACK. I decline to be interrupted 
now. 

Mr. RICHARDSON. I think you cannot; 
you do not know. 

Mr. CUMBACK. We will sec who knows. 
Here it is in Polk's special message, on the 14th 
of August, 1848, on the Oregon question: 

" In December, 1819, application was niailo to Congress 
by the people of Missouri Territory lor admission into tlie 
Union oi a State. The discussion upon tlio sulijcct in 
Congress involved tlie question of slavery, and was prose- 
cuted with such violence as to produce excitements alarm- 
ing to every patriot in the Union. HUT THR GOOD 
GENIUS OF CONCILIATION, WHICH I-RESIOEUAT 
THE BIRTH OF OUR INSTITUTIONS, FINALLY 
PREVAILED, AND THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 
WAS ADOPTED. The eighth section of the act of Con- 
gress of the 6tli of ."March, l&iU, • to authoriicc the people of 
the Territory of Missouri to form a constitution and StaM 
goveniment,' &c., provides: 

" ' That in all that territor>' ceded by France to the United 
' St.-vfes, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of 
' 36° 30' north latitude, not include<I within the limits of the 
' State contemplated by this act, slaverj- and involuntary 
' servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, 
' whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be, 
'and is hereby, forever prohibited: I'roviditl alwtnfs. Thai 
' any person eseapini; into the same from whom labor or 
' service is lawfully claimed in any State or Territory of the 
' United States, such fugitive may b..' lawfully rcelaimcd 
' and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or 
' service as aforesaid.' 

" This compromise had the cITect of calming the troubled 
waves, and restoring peace and good-will throu.;hout the 
States of the Union. The Mi.ssouri (|ue^tion had excited 
intense agitation of the public tnind.ami threatened to divide 
the country into geograploL-al parties, alienaiing the leelingi 
of attachment which each portion of the Uni(ui .should bear 
to every other. The compromise allayed the excitement, 
tranquilizcd the popular mind, and restored confidence and 
fraternal feelings. ITS ALTHi >1!S WI'.RE HAILED AS 
PUBLIC BENEF.\CTORS!" 

Mr. Spealcer, we propose to tranquibV.c the 
public mind — to put a quietus on the outrages in 
Kansas by restoring the prohibition of slavery in 
that Territory; and, sir, I have no fears but thai 
posterity will pronounce upon our act the sama 
benediction as is here pronounced upon its original 



6 



enactors by Mr. Polk. Gentlemen may talk about 
a dissolution of the Union, if that is attempted, 
as long and as loud as they choose. I read from 
this same message of Mr. Polk, on that point, 
£uid let gentlemen who professed to be Democrats 
then and now, to ask themselves who are the 
disunionists. It will be remembered that when 
Texas was admitted into the Union, the compro- 
mise was applied to all the territory of Texas 
north of that line. Mr. Polk, in speaking of the 
compromise and the admission of Texas, says: 

" Ought we now to disturb the Texas and Missouri com- 
promises? Ought we at tliis late day, in attempting to au- 
nul what lias been so long established and acquiesced in, 
to excite sectional jealousies and divisions, to alienate the 
people of different portions of the Union from each other, 
AND TO ENDANGER THE EXISTENCE OF THE 
UNION ITSELF?" 

Let gentlemen answer, who are the enemies of 
the Union. We are told by the gentleman from 
Missouri that the Missouri compromise was an 
odious measure, forced upon the South against 
tlieir will by votes from the North. I ask the 
gentleman to look a little more cautiously to the 
history of the legislation of 1820, before he makes 
such wild assertions. I ask liim to look at the 
votes of northern and southern men at its enact- 
ment. I hold in my hand a letter from a distin- 
guished gentleman from the South, which was 
written at the time the Missouri compromise was 
passed. 

" Congress Hall, March2, 1820, 
Three o'clocl: at night. 

"Dear Sir: I hasten to inform you thatthismonicntwe 
have carried the question to admit Missouri and all Louisi- 
ana to the southward free, from the restriction of slavery, 
and give the South an addition of six and perhaps eight mem- 
bers to the Senate of the United States. IT IS CONSID- 
ERED HERE, BY THE SLAVEHOLDING STATES, 
AS A GREAT TRIUMPH." 

The enactment of the Missouri compromise, 
at the time when it gave Missouri, a slave State, 
into the Union, and when it gave that territory 
south, also free from restriction, was a great tri- 
umph. But, sir, when the other side of the con- 
tract is about to be carried out, it suddenly becomes 
a very "odious measure." But Mr. Pinckney 
goes on in this same letter, and says: 

" The votes were close — ninety to eighty-si.t, (the vote 
was so first declared) — produced by the seceding of a few 
Rbscntaiid moderate men from the North. To the north of 
36" 30', there is to be, by the present law, restriction, which 
you will see by the votes, I voted against. Bid it is at/n-esent 
of 110 moment. It is a vast tract, uninhahitcd, onUj Iiy wild 
beasts and satagcs, in irhich not afoot of tlie Indian claim to 
ike soil is extinguished, in which, according to the ideas preva- 
lent, no land office will be open for a great length of lime. 

"With respect, your obedient servant, 

"CHARLES PINCKNEY." 

But, by-and-by, in the course of events, that ter- 
ritory has become open for settlement, and Stales 
are to be made out of it, and then the institution 



of slavery, like the fabled dog of old, which never 
sleeps, puts its eye upon it, and now it becomes 
a great sin for a freeman to go into Kansas for 
the purpose of making it a free State. The gen- 
tleman from Missouri tells us that the ruling prin- 
ciple which prompted men to go to Kansas, was 
freedom for the African. Well, sir, I confess, 
in my own heart, I have some sympathy with 
the African, bound and enslaved as he is, and sold 
in the market, often from his own wife and 
! children, but I have more for the white man. 
Slavery is a curse to the white man as well as to the 
slave. But with slavery in Missouri I have noth- 
ing to do. I do not wish to interfere with it there. 
You are responsible for it there. But, in Kansas, I 
have something to do, and I will tlicrefore inter- 
fere. The men who went there desired to make In- 
dianas and Ohios of the Territories of Kansas and 
Nebraska. Their object was to guaranty to their 
children and their children's children the blessings 
of freelabor and free institutions. They wanted to* 
transmit to their children the same rights which 
our patriotic fathers transmitted to us in the north- 
west, by the ordinance of 1787. Ay, this doc- 
trine is sectional now. Why? South Carolina, 
Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia will not 
now stand upon the same platform that they did 
then. That was in the better days of the Repub- 
lic. That was when Jefferson, and such men, 
legislated for the country. If it has become sec- 
tional, who made it so ? It has not been made so 
by our leaving the doctrines of our fathers. You 
have seceded from it and claim to be wiser than 
they. 

But the gentleman from Missouri closes his 
argument by asking this question: "Who will 
vote for this investigation.'" Let me rather ask 
him, who will vote against it ? Rather let me ask 
where is the man who will stand up in this Hall 
and say he will not vote for a full and free inves- 
tigation of all the facts connected with this Kansas 
matter .' For my own part, I say I will vote for 
it. I want all the fatts of this case developed, 
that the country may sec who is wrong and who 
is right. Truth never shrinks from investigation. 
Mr. Speaker, I did not intend, at this time, to 
say as much as I have said. I rose merely to 
correct some statements made by my friend from 
Missouri, [Mr. Oliver,] who has just spoken in 
reference to the original enactment of the Missouri 
compromise, and to ask that gentleman what 
right — if the proceedings in Kansas were even 
irregular — had Missouri to interfere ? Who made 
Missouri the protector of Kansas, and the power 
to be consulted as how often and how many 
men shall emigrate to Kansas to secure frccinsti- 



tutions to that Territory ? If those persons went to 
Kansas, and voted irregularly and witliout rights, 
which I wliolly deny, it was the duty of the gov- 
ernment of Kansas to punish any irregularities 
committed by these men. That was not the duty 
of Missouri, any more than it was the duty of In- 
diana. The legislation of the Territory of Kansas 
is not in any way connected with the legislation 
of Missouri. 

But if that Legislature which made the law 
under which General Whitfield was elected, was 
elected by residents of the State of Missouri, was 
the sjjawn of fraud and violence, let us remove 
the veil and show the country the origin from 
which emanated this law. Let the country know 
how it was that a body of men was chosen who 
have enacted a code more bloody than the laws 
of Draco — more at war with the rights of men — 
than ever emanated from the throne of the most 
absolute despotism; more disgraceful to our re- 
publican Government than anything that has 
occurred since its formation. Who will vote to 
refuse inquiry into these things ? We will see. 



The following arc specimens of the legislation 
of the Territory of Kansas: 

Kunsai Slave Code. 
AN ACT to puiiL^h olTenses against slave property. 

Be it enacted liythe Gavemor atid Lcpslative JlsscmUij of 
the Territory of Kansas, That every person, bond or free, 
who shall be convicted of actually raising a rebellion or in- 
turrcction of slaves, Iri-e neyroes, orniulatloes, in this Ter- 
ritory, shall suHer death. 

• »**«♦* 

Sec. II. XC any person print, write, introduce into, or 
publish or circulate, or cause to be bronu;lit into, printed, 
written, published, or circulated, or shall knowiucly aid or 
assist in brin^'ing into, printins, pnblisliins, or circulatinjr 
within this Territory, any book, paper, pamphlet, maj.M7.ine, 
handbill, or circular, containini; any statements, aru'umeiils, 
opinion, sentjnient.doetrinc, advice, or innuendo, calculated 
to produce a disorderly, dangerous, or rebellious disall'ection 
among the slaves in tliis Territory, or to induce such slaves 
to escape from the service of their masters, or to resist their 
authority, shall be guilty of a felony, and be punished by 
imprisonment at hard labor for a term not less than five 
years. 

Sec. 12. If any free person, by speaking or writing, 
assert or maintain that persons have not the riulit to hold 
slaves in this Territory, or shall introduce into this Terri- 
tory, print, publish, write, circulate, or cause to be intro- 
duced into tlii.f Territory, written, printed, published, or 
circulated in this Territory any book, paper, magazine, 
pamphlet, or circular containing any denial of the right of 
persons to hold slaves in this Territory, such person shall 
be dcemc<l guilty of felony, and punished by imprisonment 
at hard lalHir for a term not less than two years. 

Skc. 1.?. \o person who is conscientiously opposed to 
holding slaves, or who docs not admit the right to hold 
slaves in this Territory, shall sit as a juror on the trial of 
any pn)sccution for any violation of any of the sectionii of 
this act. 



This act to take effect and be in force from and after Iho 
Sthday of September. .V. D. IH.V). 

J. II. STHIN'tJFKI.I.OW, 
Ulicukcr of the House. 
Attest : J. M. Ltlk, Clerk. 

TIIOM.AS JOHN.SOIV, 
President of the Council. 
Attest: i. A. Haldexan, Clerk. 

AN ACT to punish persons decoying slaves from their 
masters. 

Be it enacted A;/ the Governor and Lcsi^lalive ..Issemhty 
of Kansas Territory, If any person shall entice, decoy, or 
carry away out of this Territory, any slave belonsing to 
another, with intent to deprive the owner thereof of ths 
services of such slave, or with intent to elfect or procure 
the freedom of such slaves, he shall bo adjinlied guilty of 
grand larceny, and on conviction thereof shall suffer deatli. 

JsKC. Q. If any person shall aid or assist in enticing, de- 
coying, or persuading, or earr>' away, or sending out of this 
Territory, any slave belonging to another with intent to pro- 
cure or effect the freedom of such slave, or with intent to 
deprive the owner thereof of tlie services of such slave, ho 
shall be adjudged guilty of grand larceny, and on conviction 
thereof shall suffer death. 

Sec. 3. If any person shall entice, decoy, or carry away 
out of any State or other Territory of the United States, 
any slave belonging to another, with intent to procure or 
.effect the freedom of such slave, or to deprive the owner 
theri!of of the services of such slave, and shall bring such 
slave into this Territory, he shall be adjudged guilty of grand 
larceny, in the same manner as if such slave had been en- 
ticed, decoyed, or carried away out of this Territory ; in 
such case the larceny may be chargi-d to have been com- 
mitted in any county of this Territory into or through which 
such slave shall have been brought by such person, and on 
conviction thereof, tlie person oflending shall suffer death. 

win act regitlating oaths and prcscriliing the forms of oatht 
of ojjice. 
Sec. 1. All officers elected or appointed undar any exist- 
ing or subsequently enacted laws of this Territory shall 

take and subscribe the following oath of ofliee : " I, , 

do solemnly swear, upon the Holy Evangelist of Almighty 
God, that I will support the Constitution of the United 
States, and that I will support and sustain the provisions 
of an act entitled '.\n act to organi/.e the Territories of 
Nebraska and Kansas, and the provisions of the law of tho 
United .States commonly known as the 'fugitive slave lair,' 
and faithfully and impartially, and to the best of my ability, 
demean myself in the discharge of my duties in the oliice of 
. So help mc God." — Pamphlet Laws, p. 516. 

One of the provisions of an act to rei^ihte elections. 
Provided further, That if any person olfering to voto 
shall be ehallengcil and required to take an oath or aflirm- 
ation, to be administered by one of the juilges of the elec- 
tion, that he will sustain the provisions of the aboverrcited 
acts of Congress, (i. c., the fugitive slave laws of 1793 and 
Irt'rf), and of the act entitled " An act to organize the Ter- 
ritories of Nebraska and Kansas," approved May 30, 1A34,) 
and shall refuse to take such oath or nllirnialion, TMH 

vin'E OF SUCH peiwon shall ue uejecteu — 

Pamphlet Laws, p. 332. 

^c-tion 3 of on act concerning att3mc;is at law, 
Troviiles that " every person obtaining a license sh.tll 
take an oath or aflirmation to support the Constitution of 
the United J^tatcs, and to support and sustainOn^ provisions 
of an act entitled '.\n act to orjanizi; the Territories of 
Nebraska and Kansas,' and the provisions of an act com- 
monly known as 'the fugitive slave hu;^ and faithfully to 
di'uiean himself in his practice, totliebcstof hisknowlcdgs 
and nhiUly.'''— Pamphlet Laws, p. 132. 



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